Are you up-to-date on X-Men ’97? Well, if you’re not sure, here is a quick reminder of where we are.
X-Men ’97: Season Two is streaming weekly on Disney+, and so far we’ve been treated to the following episodes: ‘Days of Past Future‘, ‘A Force to Be Reckoned With‘, ‘Rise of Apocalypse – Part One‘, and ‘Rise of Apocalypse – Part Two‘.
This week X-Men ’97: Season Two continued with Episode Five: ‘Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs‘. And as with previous episodes of X-Men ’97, ‘Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs‘ was packed to the rafters with references and in-jokes related to X-Men: The Animated Series, as well as the wider X-Men universe.
Did you spot all the references? Not sure? Well don’t worry. As with previous weeks, I am taking a look at those references with a run-through of what you might have missed.
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Credit roll
As is always the case with X-Men ‘97 it’s worth watching the opening credits for the subtle changes. This week saw the return of pretty much the entire cast in the credits, minus Jubilee and Sunspot who are now members of X-Force.
And this entire cast includes Bishop, Nightcrawler, and for the first time, Forge! Forge has appeared multiple times in X-Men ‘97 and X-Men: The Animated Series, but this is the first time he has been given a name check in the credits.
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Bone claws
The opening credits roll call of characters also includes Wolverine back in his classic brown costume and sporting his bone claws. This episode should mark the final time the bone claws make an appearance.
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Weapon X
And sticking with the credits for a moment and there are nods to past episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series, including Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tape, Cold Vengeance, and Out of the Past.
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Blasts from the past
As the episode opens, Wolverine and Morph are in a helicopter accompanied by four passengers: Kane, Maverick, Sabretooth, and Lady Deathstrike.
With the exception of Kane, who only cameoed in X-Men: The Animated Series via the two-part story, Time Fugitives, the other three featured significantly in past episodes of the show. Maverick and Sabretooth were established as members of the same strike force that Wolverine was once a part of.
As for Lady Deathstrike, aka Yuriko, she is a former girlfriend of Wolverine’s. The two-part story, Out of the Past, also noted that she is the daughter of the man responsible for creating the process that would cover Wolverine’s skeleton with Adamantium.
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Dr. Cornelius
And speaking of Wolverine’s Adamantium makeover, Kane mentions Dr. Cornelius who was responsible for the Weapon X program. Cornelius previously appeared in X-Men: The Animated Series, initially via the episode, Repo Man.
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It’s Morphin time!
During the helicopter scene Morph transforms into Wolverine. A short while later he transforms into Sasquatch, a member of the Canadian super group, Alpha Flight.
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Alpha Flight
For those who don’t recall, prior to joining the X-Men, Wolverine was once a member of Alpha Flight. The team previously appeared in X-Men: The Animated Series via the episode, Repo Man.
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Enter: The Brood
After Wolverine and his team crash land, they encounter a ferocious bear who appears to have been infected by something. The infection is later revealed to be The Brood.
First introduced in the pages of Uncanny X-Men #155, The Brood is a parasitic alien race who look like big freakin’ bugs. They have crossed paths with the X-Men multiple times in the comics and have infected members of the team, including Wolverine.
The Brood had a brief cameo appearance in the X-Men: The Animated Series episode, Mojovision, but were never properly introduced into the show.
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The Colony
If you are convinced The Brood did appear in a full episode of X-Men: The Animated Series it is because you are likely confusing the alien creatures with another alien race known as the Colony. The Colony appeared in the episode, Love in Vain.
This episode essentially switched out The Brood for the Colony, presumably because The Brood were deemed too scary for a Saturday morning kids cartoon. But for all intents and purposes, the Colony were a more ‘90s TV friendly version of The Brood.
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Credit where credits is due
It’s also worth noting that the Brood did appear in the Japanese opening credits to X-Men: The Animated Series. Over in Japan, they got different (and somewhat misleading) opening credits for X-Men: The Animated Series, although the rest of the show remained the same.
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Graydon Creed
As Wolverine’s team explore the facility which houses the new Weapon X program, Morph makes mention of Graydon Creed. He is referenced in relation to being Sabretooth’s son.
Graydon Creed previously appeared in multiple episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series, and at one point was the leader of the mutant hating group, the Friends of Humanity. That was until Creed was revealed to be the child of the mutant, Sabretooth (something his fellow Friends of Humanity did not look kindly on).
It was later revealed in the episode Bloodlines, that Graydon Creed was also the son of Mystique. This in turn made him the half-brother of Nightcrawler (Mystique’s biological son) and sort of connected to Rogue (Mystique’s adopted daughter).
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It’s Morphin’ time… again!
As The Brood appear and attack Wolverine’s team, Morph performs two quick transformations. The first is Puck, a member of Alpha Flight, while the second is the Thing from the Fantastic Four.
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Sniff sniff
As the team try and figure out what The Brood are, Morph suggests that Wolverine might be familiar with their scent and therefore know what they are. Wolverine replies: “Got a whiff of something similar once, but these are different.” Wolverine is referring to the aforementioned Colony.
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“Our second alien invasion”
Wolverine then turns to Lady Deathstrike and refers to a second alien invasion. This is in reference to an alien known as the Spirit Drinker, which shared screen time with Wolverine and Deathstrike in the two-part X-Men: The Animated Series story, Out of the Past.
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DVDs
As Morph, Lady Deathstrike, and Sabretooth explore the underground facility, Morph comes across a collection of digital versatile discs (DVDs). The labels on the discs include the names of various Marvel characters including X-23, Ajax, Aurora, Fantomex, Wolverine, Psi-Borg, Mastodon, Weapon VIII, the Winter Soldier, Weapon VI, Ant, Kane, Sabretooth, Agent Zero, Worm, Sluggo, Kestrel, and Kimura.
Silver Fox’s name is also amongst the collection of DVDs. Silver Fox previously appeared in the X-Men: The Animated Series episode, Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tape.
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Omega Red
Further exploration of the facility leads to the discovery of Omega Red. This Russian villain previously appeared in X-Men: The Animated Series, via the episodes Red Dawn and A Deal with the Devil.
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Aliens
As Maverick reappears on screen he bumps into Morph and utters a line about it being “game over”. This is a quick reference to a line used in the 1986 film, Aliens, which is in turn a nod to the fact The Brood were inspired by the Xenomorphs from the Alien movies.
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Got your covered
As Wolverine reappears, it is revealed that he has been infected by the Brood. His initial appearance is a nod to the cover of Uncanny X-Men #234. In this issue, Wolverine was also infected by The Brood.
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Morph and Morph again
Morph performs further transformations in this episode, including Alpha Flight’s Vindicator, Deadpool, Silver Samurai, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Spider-Man. And yes, it’s the same Spidey from the ‘90s cartoon.
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A Sinister situation
As Morph and an infected Wolverine square off, Morph mentions how Wolverine stood by him when he was being corrupted by Mister Sinister. This was an ongoing plot thread throughout season two of X-Men: The Animated Series, where Wolverine continually tracked down Morph in an attempt to lure him away from Sinister’s control.
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Death knock
And finally, by episode’s end, Kane, Maverick, Omega Red, Dr. Cornelius, the Weapon X facility staff, and The Brood are all supposedly killed. That’s a lot of deaths for one episode.
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